Venice
The Most Serene Republic of Venice, known commonly as Venice or Veneto, was a merchant republic located in northern Italy and the protagonist of Alternate History of Europe - Season 1: "Varna", along with the Mamluk Caliphate. The Republic, founded in 697, soon grew to dominate Mediterranean trade and the Adriatic and Aegean seas. By 1453, it formed an alliance with Naples, which would become the Italian League six years later with the inclusion of Sardinia. After decades of rivalry with the Mamluks and their Maghrebi League, Venice was one of the main participants in the Great Mediterranean War of 1509-1517. However, after a series of events in 1517 related to the finding of the Neapolitan-Mamluk Malta Agreement would lead to the Republic being overthrown from leading the League of Varna and the Fourth Lombard War. On May 1517, Venice was ultimately annexed by Naples, forming the Italic Union. History Before the series: 697-1453 The Republic of Venice was founded on 697 by Paolo Lucio Anafesto, around the Venetian Lagoon. Over the following centuries, the Republic would begin domination of the Adriatic by conquering Dalmatia and Istria, as well as several other outposts later on. In 1204, doge Enrico Dandolo was the leader of the Fourth Crusade against Byzantium; the war would result in an irreversible weakening of the Empire for the next 57 years, as it was split between the Nicaean and Latin Empires. Venice annexed several Aegean islands after the war, including Crete. In the early 15th century, Venice conquered large parts of northern Italy, known as the Terraferma, and fought the First Lombard War against Milan, conquering Brescia. Alliance with Naples and Italian League: 1453-1487 In 1452, the Great Bosnian War broke out and resulted in the Bosnian annexation of Herzegovina, as well as an alliance between the former and Serbia and Zeta's annexation by Serbia. This alarmed doge Francesco Foscari, who feared that the new alliance would conquer Venetian Dalmatia and Durres. However, he was then approached by Naples, who proposed an alliance. The Venetians were skeptical of the Neapolitan strenght. However, Naples then launched the Albanian War against Skanderbeg of Albania. The unexpected success against the general who had defeated the Ottomans multiple times caused the doge to make his decision, and allied with Naples. The war ended in the tripartite division of Albania between Venice, Naples and Byzantium. "You are not bad, I'll give you that. I accept your alliance offer." - Venice to Naples, 1453 As the Mamluks began to expand, the Venetian spy network began to uncover plans to attack Byzantium. Such plans would only be executed 49 years later, but nevertheless Venice felt threatened and proposed a triple alliance between them, Naples and Sardinia. This alliance would come to be known as the Italian League. The first move of the League was to support the Sardinian invasion of Algiers during the First Maghrebi War. Later in 1468, they launched the Second Lombard War against Genoa and Milan. The war resulted in the League's monopoly of Italian Mediterranean trade, as well as the Venetian annexation of the Genoese Aegean, Sinop and Crimea. During the First Russian War of 1474-1477, Venice further expanded their holdings in Crimea and annexed Mantrega. Tensions in the Mediterranean: 1487-1509 After the formation of the Mamluk Caliphate and the Maghrebi League in the 1470s, tensions began to rise across the Mediterranean Sea. Those became apparent after the Third Mamluk War of Conquest of 1487 and subsequent conquest of the Red Sea, which resulted in the Caliphate blocking Europe from the Indian spice trade, forcing them to either use the longer and costlier land routes through Central Asia or smuggle products from the Mamluk allies. Venice and the Italian League participated in the Dutch War of Independence, intervening against Austria and annexing Trento. After that, they supported the Italian states in their secession from the Holy Roman Empire and the subsequent Third Lombard War. In 1500, Cosimo Borgatizi became the doge of Venice. In 1505-1506, Venice aided Naples and Sardinia during the Provençal, Sicilian and Tlemceni rebellions. The Great Mediterranean War: 1509-1517 The Naval War Venice and the Italian League declared war on the Mamluk Caliphate on November 12th, 1509. The earliest participations of the League in the war were mostly naval engagements. Venetian Crimea was invaded by Armenia as early as 1510, during the First Anatolian War. Sinop was also annexed by the Caliphate the following year. As a retaliation for the Castilian and Portugalician defeats at Ceuta and Fez, Venice and the League invaded Sicily. However, they suffered a major defeat at the Battle of the Aegean against the Mamluk navy on January 20th, 1512, while attempting to protect the Marmara straits. The Italian League helped the Byzantine court flee from Constantinople to Athens prior to the former's siege. The Mamluks also invaded and annexed Crete. War in the Balkans As Serbia and Bosnia joined the war on the Mamluk side, sparking the Second Balkan War, Venice launched an invasion into both. The Venetian and Neapolitan armies, however, failed to reach the Morava river, and a partial stalemate was reached. Borgatizi also ordered a landing in the Dardenelles to lift the siege of Constantinople, but the Venetian and remaining Byzantine armies were defeated on October 31st, 1512. The retreating Venetian armies entered Ottoman territory, causing the Second Anatolian War. The armies of the Republic were ultimately defeated at Bursa on January 8th. With the Polish entry into the war in 1513, the combined Venetian, Neapolitan, Sardinian and Hungarian armies occupied large swathes of land in the Balkans. However, after Hungarian presence in the region declined due to the Battle of Lviv, the italians were defeated by the Bosnians on January 19th, 1514. The turning point In 1514, the Mamluks launched a surprise invasion in Italy, after they had failed to defeat Poland the previous year. They landed at Ortranto and quickly advanced through the Adriatic coast, with the objective of capturing Venezia itself. However, the Duchies of Romagna and Urbino stood on the route, and were subsequently invaded by the Caliphate. That triggered a reaction from all Italian states, which led to the Mamluk defeat at Bologna. The Venetians then aided Byzantium and defeated the Mamluks a second time at Termopylae, sealing the fate of the League of Cairo in the Balkans. Bosnia and Nis fell quickly, with the former being split by Venice and Hungary. In the prelude of the Second Battle of Varna, the major leaders of the anti-Mamluk coalition founded the League of Varna. As the battle once again ended in a Polish victory, the Caliphate was expelled out of the Balkans for good. Venice had a participation in the ensuing Third Anatolian War by invading Cyprus and Crimea, which was ceded back by the Armenia as it declared loyalty to the League of Varna. Prelude to catastrophe With the beginning of the Nine Months' War, the final phase of the Great Mediterranean War, Venice recaptured the island of Crete. However, the Mamluk caliph Sayf ad-Din Qaitbay II sent the troops occupying the island a last request: to search for a chest in Heraklion. Such a chest was found, and it contained a copy of the Malta Agreement between Naples and the Mamluks. The news was sent immediately to the Doge's Palace. The doge, in a public speech, declared war against Naples. However, after letters sent to the other allied powers were likely intercepted by a bribed spy network and replaced by Neapolitan letters, the League of Varna instead declared war on Venice on May 6th, 1517, citing a "Venetian betrayal against the Neapolitan king". Downfall The Fourth Lombard War against Venice was quick. By May 12th, the Neapolitan troops which had been stationed in Ferrara reached Venezia; the city was shelled by new cannons, and a desperate population rose up and incinerated the Doge's Palace, causing the death of Cosimo Borgatizi. The provisional government formed by the rebels officially delievered the letter of surrender to king Ferrante I of Naples, and later that day, the Treaty of Venice was signed, leading to the official end of the Most Serene Republic of Venice, after 820 years of existence. The Republic was replaced by Ferrante's Italic Union between Naples and Venice, though the "union" was only in name. Legacy The Fourth Lombard War and its circumstances would have reverberations on Italy and beyond for decades to come. The claims that Naples falsely accused and betrayed Venice led to the First and Second Italian Wars. In 1533, during his insanity, King Ferrante I of Naples hallucinated and saw the "ghost" of Venice, dying of a heart attack soon after and leading to the Italic Succession War. Character Venice is, by all accounts, the protagonist of Alternate History of Europe - Season 1: "Varna". It made its first appearance on Episode II: "Protection". Venice's personality is described as "intelligent, yet very naive", being so blindly trustful of Naples: they had the ability to spy on them and possibly discover the ploy to bribe their spy network, however they did not, and therefore Romagna and Urbino were able to bribe their agents and Naples was able to sign the Malta Agreement without further consequences, eventually leading to Venice's downfall 9 years later. Other examples of their naiveté can be seen as they fail to predict enemy moves such as the Battle of Visoko in 1514. Venice's character has, however, become a symbol of the series, being one of the most popular characters in general. Brazilian has claimed Venice's personality is modelled after his own.